Game Recommendations

This is a thread wherein someone who is in the market for a certain game or type of game can ask fellow forumites what they think. This is different from "The Game Review Thread", "Rate the Last game you Finished", and "Which Games Are You Currently Playing?" threads in that, in those threads you are critiquing games after you played/beat them, seemingly at random from a conversational standpoint.

In this thread, someone might be looking for opinions about a specific game or group of games in a certain genre, in an effort to know whether they should buy it or not.

The reason why I'm making this post is so that I can (1) purchase a game while knowing I'm not falling victim to overblown media hype, and (2) ask questions of the community about potential purchases without spending hours fiddling with the search function.

Well, it would be an obvious mention to recommend the other 3D Mario games. I have both Mario Galaxy games and they're both very good. Although Mario Galaxy 2 is harder, and it has stars in more locations per World rather than recycling the same stars between Mario and Luigi like Mario Galaxy 1 does.

I did get Mario Sunshine at one point in the past, and returned it after a couple of days because the FLUDD water cannon made the gameplay different enough from Mario 64 that I was disappointed at the time. However, I have since watched NintendoCapriSun's Let's Play of Mario Sunshine, and it seems like it would be really very fun.

Umm... I'm not really sure about other recently developed 3D platformers. I own the first Jak & Daxter, and Sly Cooper games for PS2 and they're pretty fun. I say so because there are Jak & Daxter and Sly Cooper HD Collections out for PS3.

I don't bring up Ratchet & Clank because you said you're not looking for games with the gun aspect (though R&C is still very cartoony-platformy besides this). Also, the R&C Collection for PS3 is reportedly very buggy, unlike the other mentioned collections.

If you'd consider older games such as from the N64/PS1 era, Rayman 2 is reportedly very good and has seen a number of ports to newer consoles, including various handhelds. Also Banjo-Kazooie is currently available on XBLA.

Also, though it's not really what you're asking about since it's not 3D, when I was looking into 3D platformers, I ran across Rayman Origins. It is 2D, but it's available on a bunch of systems, including PC. I watched the IGN review of it, and when they say it gives Mario games a run for their money, I can see why they'd say so just from the footage.

The 3D platforming genre has been quite neglected lately. One of the only ones I can think of that's modern and hasn't already been named is the upcoming indie game Pirates of New Horizons. A demo can be played in a browser, and a level is unlocked if you preorder it. I have no idea when it'll be released in full, but it looks decent so far.

1) I have a ridiculously high level cap;2) Almost everything is customizable;3) I can manage an entire city, or at least a farm.

Also, it should be an RPG.

Now, one of the three items can be left out (that is, any of the three), as long as the other two are still in. It's likely you would just throw out the third option, since there are nearly no Harvest Moons or Rune Factories on PC.

I do prefer all three though.

Actually, if everything else fails, number 2 is the most important to me. I love in-game customization.